Friday, 10 June 2011

How To Automatically Bookmark Your Blog Posts On Delicious Via Twitter

3d Delicious IconIn this Blog Tip i will show you how you can have your posts automatically Bookmarked on Social Bookmarking website Delicious.Delicious is a very popular social bookmarking site used to store bookmarks of your favorite pages online.Delicious was bought by Yahoo in 2005 and in what seems to have been a very low key transaction Yahoo actually sold Delicious in April this year (2011) to AVOS Systems, a company owned by Chad Hurley and Steve Chen the founders of YouTube.Delicious is often used as a gage of a blogs popularity including on advertising site BuySellAds were the number of bookmarks for each site is listed.OK so enough of the history lesson lets see how to automatically bookmark your blog posts on Delicious.
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Thursday, 9 June 2011

The New ShareThis Bookmarking Buttons With Share Count For Blogger

Share This Bookmark ButtonsShare This is a very popular service offering multiple Social Bookmarking Widgets for blogs and websites.The green Share This icon is a familiar sight on many of the top blogs opening up a wide range of options for readers to Bookmark and share the content.In this post i have a Blogger Tip show you how to add the new Share This 'Oath' Counter Buttons to various positions on your blog.You can see the buttons in question to the top of this paragraph and that position will be one of the options for your blog.

To generate the buttons you will need to go to the Share This website and use their very easy generator process.In the video below we will go through the steps from generating the buttons to adding them to your blog.Lets look at the demo on the test blog from the video.
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Wednesday, 8 June 2011

New Blogger Feature - Add A Favicon To Your Blog

One of the things that can give a blog more of an identity and a brand is a logo that people will come to associate with the blog.In the same way we become used to seeing the logo of a blog also used as the favicon.Favicons are an important part of how we see a blog and how we remember a blog.In a previous Blogger Tip i showed you how to add a favicon to blogs on Blogger but today Blogger have taken action and made it part of the options on your blogs design page.So from now on with just two clicks you can add a custom favicon to your blog.

favicon on blogger

What is a favicon ? A Favicon is the small image you see beside the address bar in your browser and depending on the browser you use it is also visible in the tab menu.If you look beside the address for this page at the top of your page you should see the same brush logo that is in the header.For more information here is a link to the wikipedia page on Favicons.

To see how to have a custom favicon on your blog check out the blogger in draft post here - Customize Your Favicon.

Drop Your Comments And Questions Below.

Tuesday, 7 June 2011

16 Best Free Blogger Templates Featuring Amazing jQuery Featured Slideshows

One of the popular features of Blogger Blogspot Templates is the Featured Post Slider or Slideshow Carousal.Not too long ago a very plain Image Slider was the best you could hope for and you were lucky to even get that.However now with so many awesome Free Blogger Templates and Designers creating templates and converting Css and Wordpress Themes to Blogger the options are fantastic.We constantly see templates of premium quality with stunning Image Sliders available for free download.In this post i will list 16 of the Best Blogger Templates With Featured Post Sliders, Image Sideshows and Picture Carousals.All the Sliders are created with jQuery which allows some cool features such as the transitions (The effect between each slide).

So in no particular order here is the list !
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Monday, 6 June 2011

Beautiful jQuery Lavalamp Floating Bubble Menu For Blogger In 6 Styles

Blogger jquery menuI recently realised i had not covered navigation menus too much in our Blogger Tips on Spice Up Your Blog.I Guess most custom templates already have a menu and templates from the template designer have tabs enabled which will turn a link list or page list into a menu.However i knew i wanted to cover the jQuery lava lamp or floating bubble menu as it is seriously cool, interactive and i have not seen it on any Blogger blog.The lava lamp menu has an effect you may have seen on other websites, a bubble is visible behind the first link title (Usually Home) on the menu and when you place your cursor over another link title the bubble slides up to that link.It looks awesome and as ever the use of jQuery makes it possible and smooth.As an extra bonus we have this effect added to 6 different color styles of menu you can quickly add to your blog !
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Saturday, 4 June 2011

Google Friend Connect Followers - How To Have A Standalone Follow Button

The Followers Gadget from Google Friend Connect is very popular and one of the most popular ways especially on Blogger for people to follow their favorite blogs.By default you can only add one followers gadget to your blog via 'Add A Gadget' so a few months ago i showed you how to have a second Google friend connect followers gadget on your blog in this post i will show you how to have a standalone Follow Button Or Text Link.So with this you can add the option to follow your blog beside Rss your Twitter and Facebook icons.You could also add it below your posts or other areas.
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Thursday, 2 June 2011

The New Google +1 - Add All The Plus 1 Button Styles To Your Blog

Google have been experimenting with their +1 (Plus One) button for a while and today they released it for websites and blogs.The plus one button lets you recommend things you like to friends and they will see your recommendations in Google search results and over time in Ads and possibly other places.In search now you can see the plus one's of your friends, contacts from Gmail, Google Reader and Google Buzz.So it makes sense to allow readers to plus one your content and recommend it to their friends.Adding the button you your blog will give the readers the option to plus you up !

Live Demos - Here are the 4 styles of the +1 Button, They Work Try Them Out !



+1 In The Default Blogger Share Buttons


Blogger users will be happy to know if you have the default share buttons enabled the plus one button may already be on your blog.Below is a screenshot You can see them working on the home page of this blog.


If you don't have them enabled here are the instructions from Blogger Buzz -

To add the +1 button to your blog, you’ll need to enable Share buttons on Blogger. To do this, go to Design > Page Elements on your Blogger dashboard, find the Blog posts area, click on Edit, and select the “Show Share Buttons” option. If you are already using Share buttons, the +1 button will automatically show up as a new share option.

Blogger Allow Share Buttons

You know i was never a fan of the default blogger share buttons but this does give them some merit now.

Using +1 Anywhere On All Blogs


You can also grab a standalone button to use on your blog by visiting Google +1 For Webmasters.

There are 4 sizes of button to choose from once you choose you generate two snippets of code.The script with the message "Place this tag in your head or just before your close body tag" goes directly before your blogs </head> tag and the second code goes were you want the button to appear.

Add Google +1 Above Posts, Below Posts On Blogger


Lets Look At Some Places You Can Add The +1 Button On Blogger.

You can go to the +1 for webmasters page to Get The Google +1 Button Codes but i have them here also.

Add The Script

The script only needs to be added once no matter how many times you add the button.The script is the snippet with the message "Place this tag in your head or just before your close body tag" on the +1 for webmasters page.I also have it below :

Go to your blogs Design Page > Edit Html > Find the following piece of code in your blogs Html : (Click Ctrl and F for a search bar to help find the code - More Info)

</head>

Copy and paste the following code directly Above / Before </head> then save your template.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js"></script>

That's it the script is added now choose a button and add it as shown.

Small +1 Button



Small Button Code

<g:plusone size="small"></g:plusone>

Medium +1 Button



Medium Button Code

<g:plusone size="medium"></g:plusone>

Standard +1 Button



Standard Button Code

<g:plusone></g:plusone>

Tall +1 Button



Tall Button Code

<g:plusone size="tall"></g:plusone>

Add To Blogger Sidebar

On Blogger go to your Design Page > Click Add A Gadget > Choose Html/Javascript and paste in the code for the +1 button then save.

Add Above Posts On Blogger

On Blogger Go To Design > Edit Html > Tick Expand Widget Templates.

Find the following piece of code in your blogs Html : (Click Ctrl and F for a search bar to help find the code - More Info)

<div class='post-header-line-1'>

Paste your +1 button code Directly Below <div class='post-header-line-1'> the save your template.

Add Below Posts On Blogger

On Blogger Go To Design > Edit Html > Tick Expand Widget Templates.

Find the following piece of code in your blogs Html : (Click Ctrl and F for a search bar to help find the code - More Info)

<div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'>

Paste Your +1 Button Code Directly Below <div class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-1'> then save your template.

That's Google +1, I like the concept but it remains to be seen how popular it will be and if it can challenge the similar Facebook and Twitter share buttons.

Drop Your Comments And Questions Below.